Are Research Projects Really Worth of our time?

“Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought”- Albert Szent- Gyorgyi.

Research is the basis of pharma field. Fortunately, I have been studying in a research-oriented pharmacy college. We were exposed to research projects from first year itself which makes us ready to face the industry after completion of our degree course. And, having an experience of research project definitely adds a cherry on the top of our resume. Thus, it’s a must for student to inculcate themselves with a research project while pursuing a degree course.

As per my experience while studying pharmacy, although we gain the knowledge from our regular academic schedule, a little extra information from reference books and few more knowledge from the extracurricular activities E.g.: Participating in a quiz competition.

But , students while performing research I also gained a lot of information about the literature survey , FDC’s ,recent advances in pharma, how to initiate the research , how to proceed with the process at lab scale , writing research paper , searching a research journal , publishing the paper and if the idea is an innovation then how to patent it. All this information is theoretically provided to us through our regular studies but while doing it in practice i.e. acquiring more practical knowledge about this count on a great experience for our future studies.

My research Project was beneficial for me in the following way:

• It helped me to learn to create a balance between collaborative and individual work
• In the prosses of searching for a topic of choice for our project we get to know about the recent advances in pharmacy , literature survey etc adds up to our knowledge and helps in development of our idea into an industrially applicable innovation.
• In my project based on Pharmaceutical formulation development, I got a hand on experience on equipment like Texture analyzer, Viscometer etc. Which I was curious about while studying them from the reference books, and by practically using it in our research resolved many queries in my mind.
• In analytical studies I handled the UV spectrophotometer, saw the working of HPLCinstruments, and dealt with the regular problems to be faced with it. In theory the instruments sounded much difficult but in practice it was much easier.
• In projects based on drug design, students from our class got used to the complicated softwares on which the designing of drugs takes place.
• In projects based on organic chemistry taught us to improvise on the skills required in synthesis and the regular lab work
• In general, we got a proper experience about the ups and downs to be faced during research, we got used to deal with problems arising in the particular field.

In general, while studying from the textbooks and reference books was way to different and really had a vast difference while applying it practically.

Students at the start of their course are not aware enough of research projects .Thus , providing them the required information about what are research projects , how are they helpful and why should students look forward to inculcate in research is a must. The respected institutions should motivate the students towards starting a research project with their course itself. We were informed in first year of our course about research and thus, it was an early beginning for us in research projects. Because of which we learned to make a proper balance between our studies and our research work.

Several platforms are were available for us to take up our work of research in the form of inter and intra college In-house competitions . In this way were motivated to take part in such competitions which not only provided a proper platform for research projects but also boosted our  confidence and encouraged us to think out of the box. During presenting our projects how the presenting skills, confidence on stage , way of answering to the judges all this was worth learning from the competitors.

Lastly I would like to say that every kind of research , every kind of method has been always useful  and gives a positive result. In case, you find something unobvious during research work, it is advisable to consult someone superior to you i.e. your guide. Research is not only limited to pharma industry, it is practiced since ancient times by one or the other way , by all the age groups knowingly unknowingly, by the students and teachers by the institution , pharma companies/ industries, to have a developed and safe approach towards the medications which proves to be life saving for the humankind.

Thus from my personal experience I would like to suggest that every student who has an interest in research should start any research  project without wasting anymore time in thinking weather is it really helpful or a time consuming tedious process?

By
Neha R. Sali
Final Year, B. Pharm.
2019-20